82 goals in Barcelona

After matchday three of the EHF Champions League only the last season’s finalist Ciudad Real in group C and THW Kiel in group D remain spotless after clear victories against Fyllingen resp. in Skopje. But Zagreb can catch up to them, if they win on Sunday in Hamburg. Barcelona took revenge for the home defeat against Kiel last matchday and scored 46 goals against Kolding. Surprising team Constanta won again, as Zurich, Fyllingen, Skopje and Alingsas are still waiting for their first points.

Group A:

HBM Constanta – Pick Szeged 32:30 (17:16)

After their glorious victory against Montpellier on matchday 2, Constanta again showed a strong performance and is paving their way to the round of the last 16 with now 4 points. The Romaniansled 13:9 after 15 minutes and surprised the Hungarians, supported loudly by 1800 spectators in the sold out arena.

As Constanta increased the gap to 14:9, everything look bad for Szeged, but until halftime the distance was only one goal (16:17)- specially as Petar Nenadic had a great day with ten goals in total. The second halftime started equal, before Constanta went away with a four goals difference (26:22).But then the game became totally tensioned, as Szeged came closer goal by goal until 31:30, before the Romanians scored the decisive goal in the final minute. Topscorers for the host were Csepregi and Nicolea with each four goals, Szeged remains with three points.

Group B:

MKB Veszprem – Vive Targi Kielce 33:26 (16:11)

First defeat for Kielce (3 points now), second consecutive victory for Veszprem (4): Each seven goals of Vujin and Sulic and the saves of goalkeeper Dejan Peric were the decisive factors for the well deserved victory for the Hungarians. Kielce didn’t have a chance in this match. “Veszprem showed an outstanding performance – and has chances to reach the Final4 with this team”, Kielce coach Bogdan Wenta praised the opponent -specially for their frenetic audience.

For Veszprem coach Lajos Mocsai said, it was decisive that his team stopped Knudsen, the top scorer of the Polish champion, who didn’t score a field goal in this match. “Our defence was perfectly organized”, Mocsai said, and: “Aside goalkeeper Dejan Peric showed a strong match.” Top scorer Vujin added: “Special thanks to our 5000 spectators and Peric. Kielce showed, why they won a point at the Löwen.” Best scorer for the Polish team was Stojkovic with seven goals.

Group C:

Alingsas HK – FCK Kopenhagen 21:33 (9:15)

The Northern duel was a one sided match, that ended with a clear victory for the Danish team. Alingsas’s still waiting for their first Champions League point, as FCK showed their ambitions for reaching the round of the last 16. Top players on FCK side were the goalkeepers Kasper Hvidt and Steinar Ege with a big number of saves. Topscorers were Jonathan Berg with six goals for Alingsas and Einar Sand Koren with ten goals for Copenhague.

Ciudad Real- Fyllingen Handball 40:24 (18:12)

3165 spectators saw a very easy victory for their still spotless team against the Norwegian champion that remains without a point. After three matches Ciudad Real has the optimum of six points on their account, much more impressive is the goal difference of +34 in total. Kallman and Abalo scored each six goals for the current title holder, Peterssen hit the net seven times for Fyllingen. For the surprise of the spectators, the Norwegians were leading 11:10 in the middle of halftime one, but then the Ciudad express started. Until the break the Spaniards scored a series of 7:1 goals and extended the distance very quickly to ten goals at the score of 22:12 – the match was decided.

But Ciudad remained hungry and really overran the team from Bergen with a 16 goals difference in the end. “We are a small club with very young players, and I think that we are still learning. The first 20 minutes we had played good.I think that Ciudad Real is the best team of the world and I’m proud of my team and with the result”, Andreas Fältnas, coach of Fyllingen said. Ciudad coach Talant Dushebajew was quite happy with his team: “Fyllingen started very fresh and focused on the match, but they are a very young team and they are learning now with this experience at Champions League. It’s a team that will give us great moments in the future.”

Group D:

Vardar Skopje – THW Kiel 23:33 (12:14)

Third match, third victory for Kiel; third match, third defeat for Skopje: Until minute 40 the Macedonians were on one level with the Germans, but in the end THW showed their strength and had much more power than Vardar. Topscorers of the match were Pecakovski (8 goals for Skopje) and Jicha (9 for Kiel). On both sides the goalkeepers Angelov and Gentzel showed a strong match with each 15 saves. In the THW team Daniel Narcisse played his first match after an injury, and coach Alfred Gislasson saved the powers of some key players after the hard week with matches in Barcelona and Flensburg.

Skopje was in lead until minute 18 (9:8), before Kiel turned the match for the first time. After the halftime result 14:12, THW speeded up to 19:14, but Skopje stayed close until the 19:20 in minute 41. By six consecutive goals THW decided the match and increased the gap to ten goals in the end.

FC Barcelona – KIF Kolding 46:36 (23:19)

Score festival in Palau Blaugran: The 2000 spectators saw the incredible number of 82 goals in 60 minutes. In a good match, Barcelona broke the game in the first half thanks’ to his excellent average from seven meters, with an outstanding Rutenka. After 22 minutes the scoreboard showed seven Rutenka goals, in the end it were twelve, the same number as Knudsen, the top scorer of Kolding, that deserved their first defeat in the third match.

The Danish came closer after the break, as they reduced the gap to 24:26, but then Barca took the favourites role and was away with ten goals at the end of the match. For the Spanish Kolding player Mateo Garralda the fact was decisive, “that we had to replace our two best defence players. We lost a lot of balls and allowed Barcelona a lot of fast break. We lost the match in small details in defence.” Barca coach Xavier Pascual saw a “game with terrible rhythm. Both teams enjoyed running and playing this kind of match. Maybe both forgot defensive work. I like my team in attack and the fast breaks,but we need to improve in the defensive balance.”

Amicitia Zurich – Ademar Leon 27:30 (14:15)

Like Barcelona, Leon took their second victory in this CL season, but the Spaniards had to fight hard until they had beaten Amicitia. “We were on the same level until minutes 55. We’re getting better from match to match”, Zurich coach Robert Nijdam said. He had to replace his topscorer Edin Basic again – one big handicap for the Swiss team, that remains without a point. Topscorers were Marcel Hess (7 for Zurich) and Mikel Aguirrezabalaga and Denis Buntic (each 6 for Ademar).

“It’s very hard to play in Zurich, as we lost here last season”, Leon coach Jordi Ribera said: “So I’m very happy with this result. It was a deserved victory, but specially the start was very critical for us, as Zurich was leading 10:6.”